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Trains in old movies but not necessarily train movies

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, April 4, 2021 8:20 AM

M636C
Does anyone know whose FA-1s were used in the movie?

Hard to tell with a B&W film, but looking at the paint scheme on the FA-1 I suspect it's a Southern Pacific locomotive with a ficticious 'road name applied.

Espee and the Santa Fe were typically the "go-to" railroads for Hollywood in those days when they needed some contemporary railroad action.

Oh yeah, that was one hell of a long-distance run all right, but I'll bet it was a fun trip!

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Posted by BaltACD on Sunday, April 4, 2021 7:09 AM

M636C
 
Juniatha

Did anybody mention this film?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OniBSbF42XI

Its an interesting document of the time of change over from steam to diesel and it's an interesting document of the society then ... sort of frightening.

Juniatha 

That's a long distance train in the opening sequence...

It runs across the bridge at Harper's Ferry West Virginia on the B&O and stops in Albuquerque New Mexico, passing a Pennsylvania steam hauled freight on the way....

Does anyone know whose FA-1s were used in the movie? I was surprised that they took the A unit off the train leaving the B unit coupled when they ran to the locomotive depot, but I guess the turntable couldn't take the two units and for once they thought of continuity...

Peter

Don't overlook the ACL passenger train it passed on the way during the opening.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by M636C on Saturday, April 3, 2021 11:05 PM

Juniatha

Did anybody mention this film?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OniBSbF42XI

Its an interesting document of the time of change over from steam to diesel and it's an interesting document of the society then ... sort of frightening.

Juniatha

 

That's a long distance train in the opening sequence...

It runs across the bridge at Harper's Ferry West Virginia on the B&O and stops in Albuquerque New Mexico, passing a Pennsylvania steam hauled freight on the way....

Does anyone know whose FA-1s were used in the movie? I was surprised that they took the A unit off the train leaving the B unit coupled when they ran to the locomotive depot, but I guess the turntable couldn't take the two units and for once they thought of continuity...

Peter

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, April 3, 2021 3:29 PM

"Streets of San Francisco" is classic TV!  I loved that show! 

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Posted by Sara T on Saturday, April 3, 2021 1:05 PM

54light15: you wrote >>"Human Desire" is a yet another great film from Fritz Lang- It was originally made in France in 1938, called "La Bete Humaine" with the legendary Jean Gabin. <<

          Yes, but that is a totally different film and a different story: the French film tells of a sexual pervert who is shown as a victim himself of his overwhelming dark desires, the other film tells the decline of just a violent husband as there were so many at that time, one more, one less, but all despotic in one way or another. 

                Excuse if I write this so, I understand if not everybody is prepared to take this. But it shows how the whole society was built on standards that not many lived up to. Pretending that everything is fine and there is nothing to worry about was a thing so widespread, it was in no way better in Germany and it goes on in Turkey and India and the like states where women are now standing up even risking their lives! That our societies have developed on has not come easy. 

          In the Highway Patrol series, they have a simple two-way scheme: there are either the police which to 100% are the 'good guys' or there are the gangsters who clearly are the 'bad guys' and behave accordingly. That one episode "Blind deaf" where the wife of the bad guy protects that 10 years old against her husband is one rare break in the scheme. But the quintessence it tells to people so inclined is not good: show human behavior and you get caught!

         The best series of that kind of stories to me still is "Streets of San Francisco" with Karl Malden and Michael Douglas. It puts up a picture of more colors and shades.

Sara 05003

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Posted by 54light15 on Saturday, April 3, 2021 12:11 PM

I have three seasons of Highway Patrol on DVD. It's funny how the bad guys always drive convertibles and never once do they put their suitcases in the trunk, but always on the back seat. It's been discussed in another thread how whatever you see of southern California in the series doesn't exist anymore by being paved over for freeways and housing developments. 

"Human Desire" is a yet another great film from Fritz Lang- It was originally made in France in 1938, called "La Bete Humaine" with the legendary Jean Gabin. It's written up in Trains magazine's "100 Greatest Train Movies" from a few years ago. 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, April 3, 2021 9:27 AM

Sara T
Broderick Crawford is said to have been a real boozer, in the series 'Highway Patrol' of the 1950s he is said at times to have been too drunk to play his role.

Oh yeah, Broderick Crawford loved his liquor all right.  In fact, when doing "Highway Patrol" his drivers license had been suspended due to drunk driving charges so the only driving he could do on the series was on private roads.

I doubt there were times he was too drunk to play his role though, Hollywood would put up with just about anything from popular actors in those days but not unreliability.  They could do just about anything off the set but when filming time came they had to be ready to go to work.  Delays in production cost money, an unforgivable sin.  Being unreliable killed a lot of star's careers and still does.

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Posted by Sara T on Saturday, April 3, 2021 4:02 AM

Juni >>an interesting document of the society then ... sort of frightening.<<

Ohh-jee, ach-du-liebe-Zeit! That subdued, then outbreaking violence! I just saw a part of it then had enough! Society has advanced since then, still we should be glad we have become so tall we are not in that awful situation as those women were back then.

Broderick Crawford is said to have been a real boozer, in the series 'Highway Patrol' of the 1950s he is said at times to have been too drunk to play his role. But fast speaking like a diesel motor always seems to have worked. Hard for me to follow.  The series episodes are funny in that they only ran for 1/2 hour, so the criminals, all dressed in correct business suits and ties, were still a bit naive. 

These are two episodes which involve a train:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTN9fgl2qpM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDA3p-Fm2eo

I prefer Broderick Crawford much better in this role! And I like those fanciful cars! With fins like mad, can't believe it! And the soft suspension, wowwh!

Sara 05003

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Posted by Juniatha on Saturday, April 3, 2021 12:56 AM

Did anybody mention this film?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OniBSbF42XI

Its an interesting document of the time of change over from steam to diesel and it's an interesting document of the society then ... sort of frightening.

Juniatha

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Posted by M636C on Saturday, March 27, 2021 8:21 AM

ORNHOO

 

 
Flintlock76
Cool!  I was a regular viewer of "Combat!"

 

It took me a while to find this, but the "generic french village set" on the studio back lot they used all the time included the "generic french railway station set" seen in this episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGqMR02eeQk

It was later available for this:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNFzfwLM72c

 

That's an interesting film set...

In the shot at 0:24 in the "Combat" video the cars on the right hand side of the screen appear to match those in the Bee Gees clip, but on the left side of the screen there is a generic British passenger car. I have seen similar mock ups used in pre WWII "Sherlock Holmes" movies among others...

Peter

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Posted by 54light15 on Friday, March 26, 2021 10:11 PM

This is a good one- "Grand Central Murder" from 1942 with Van Heflin and Sam Levene. A snappy whodunit set in a private car and among the platforms of GCT. I think it's mostly done on film sets but those NYC electric locos are cruising around. Well worth seeing! 

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Posted by ORNHOO on Saturday, December 12, 2020 11:22 AM

Flintlock76
Cool!  I was a regular viewer of "Combat!"

It took me a while to find this, but the "generic french village set" on the studio back lot they used all the time included the "generic french railway station set" seen in this episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGqMR02eeQk

It was later available for this:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNFzfwLM72c

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Posted by 54light15 on Wednesday, December 9, 2020 2:50 PM

Sometimes ya gotta wallow in the trash. Pick any Russ Meyer movie but there's no trains in them but still, a lot to look at! 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Wednesday, December 9, 2020 9:24 AM

54light15

Here's one. "The Valley of the Dolls" from 1967. Total trash but still sort of worth seeing. They keep telling you that it's set in Connecticut but it features a New York Central commuter train which I think is shown at Mount Kisco on the Harlem Valley line. At that time there was service all the way to Millerton, if not further North. 

 

Oh yeah, the movies total trash all right, but there's some nice run-bys of that NYC commuter train with an RS-3 on the head end!

Forget the rest of it.  Although Barbara Parkins was a hottie though!

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Posted by Erik_Mag on Tuesday, December 8, 2020 10:07 PM

Maybe not all that far off as most of the people commuting to NYC from CT were headed to Grand Central Terminal.

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Posted by 54light15 on Tuesday, December 8, 2020 10:01 PM

Here's one. "The Valley of the Dolls" from 1967. Total trash but still sort of worth seeing. They keep telling you that it's set in Connecticut but it features a New York Central commuter train which I think is shown at Mount Kisco on the Harlem Valley line. At that time there was service all the way to Millerton, if not further North. 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, December 5, 2020 8:18 PM

Hey, that 4-4-0 in the "Combat!" episode?

Leave it to "Magic Mike," our incomperable "Wanswheel," to find out its history!  And here it is:

http://www.virginiaandtruckee.com/Locomotive/No11.htm

https://trn.trains.com/railroads/railroad-history/2010/07/virginia-and-truckee

Once I knew who it was I was able to find this:

https://locomotive.fandom.com/wiki/Virginia_and_Truckee_No._11_Reno#:~:text=Virginia%20%26%20Truckee%20Railroad%20No.,specifically%20to%20pull%20passenger%2

Thanks Mike!

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Posted by 54light15 on Saturday, December 5, 2020 3:48 PM

My father had an 1903 Springfield- He let me fire it at the rifle range. Once. I was ten years old and never asked again. I was happy to use his .22s after that. I vaguely recall that episode you mention, it's sure been a long time since I watched that show. 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, December 5, 2020 2:59 PM

54light15
I never saw that episode of Combat either.

Do you remember the one called "The Doughboy?"  Eddie Albert guest starred as a WW1 veteran who stayed in France after the war (Fell in love with a local girl. Kisses) then when the second war comes has a flashback to 1918?  He goes out to fight the "Heinies" in his WW1 uniform complete with his 1903 Springfield.  That episode gave me a fascination with the First World War that's lasted to this day.  It made me want an '03 Springfield too, but at 10 years old that was out of the question! 

I did get an '03 many years later.  Still have it too!

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, December 5, 2020 2:56 PM

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Posted by 54light15 on Saturday, December 5, 2020 1:44 PM

I never saw that episode of Combat either. Funny how Europe looks so much like Southern California. Same goes for the Europe-set episodes of the old Mission Impossible. Whenever a show was set in, say, England, they'd break out the London taxi, a left-hand drive Rolls-Royce and a Citroen van that looked like it was made out of a garden shed. 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, December 5, 2020 10:53 AM

Possibly, but I think continuity probably had a lot more to do with it.  It's a lot easier for the film editors to put the final print together if the principals look the same all the time, or at least most of the time.  

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Posted by ORNHOO on Saturday, December 5, 2020 10:32 AM
I once saw a documentary on RKO pictures in which it was mentioned that in their movies mens fedoras never came off, not even in in a knock down fight, because if they did the studio would have to pay for a hairdresser to be on set.
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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, December 5, 2020 8:54 AM

54light15

Well, I was only guessing about MST. But in the original, there sure were a lot of spiffy fedoras that got mussed up, don't you think? 

 

Absolutely!  And who dresses up like that to ride the subways now?  Different day and age.

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, December 5, 2020 8:52 AM

Cool!  I was a regular viewer of "Combat!" but I don't remember this episode.

Anyway, it's obviously an American 4-4-0 locomotive, something more appropriate for a Western than a WW2 drama.  At the time this series was filmed (early 1960's) some Hollywood studios still had antique railroad equipment on hand, and wouldn't start selling it off until around 1970 or so. 

That particular engine might  be part of the collection at the Nevada State Railroad Museum now, I believe some of their stock did come from Hollywood.

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Posted by Leo_Ames on Friday, December 4, 2020 11:00 PM

Does anyone happen to know which locomotive this is in this episode of 'Combat!'?

https://youtu.be/dvjM4SwBHAA?t=1900

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Posted by 54light15 on Thursday, December 3, 2020 10:23 PM

Well, I was only guessing about MST. But in the original, there sure were a lot of spiffy fedoras that got mussed up, don't you think? 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, December 3, 2020 7:36 PM

Oh brother, that lame "King Kong" remake from 1976!  

Man, if you're a film-maker and you can't top the original, or even come close, don't bother!  Spare us!

No, that's not "Mystery Science Theater" with those comments, "MST" never allowed potty words!

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Posted by 54light15 on Thursday, December 3, 2020 6:05 PM

That Godzilla theme was awesome! Don't mess with the big guy! 

King Kong didn't like trains too much either- one is the colourised original, the other is a remake and judging from the spoken comments on that one, it must be from the late, great Mystery Science Theatre 3000. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwgdgD_BDHE 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n03HxctDYuU 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, December 3, 2020 2:42 PM

It's so  much better in the original Japanese!  A much darker version than the one with Raymond Burr, God rest his soul!

By the way, according to the Japanese Godzilla only chews on trains when he's very annoyed.  Otherwise, Godzilla only eats fish. 

And you just know  Big G's a hero in Japan when he gets this treatment from the Tokyo Philharmonic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDeU42u2s2Y  

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